Introducing the Five Latest Startups To Be Supported by Samsung as Spin-offs From the C-Lab Inside Program

As part of the company’s overarching philosophy to help bring about a better tomorrow, Samsung Electronics has announced that it will be supporting five new startups that have grown out of its in-house venture program, C-Lab Inside.

Started in December 2012, Samsung C-Lab Inside nurtures employees’ innovative ideas while instilling a corporate culture in which creativity is at the fore. Since its inception, C-Lab Inside has incubated 339 projects with the participation of 1395 employees. This May, Samsung announced support for four other startups, bringing the total of startups that the company supports to 57 along with the participation of 199 employees.

Read on to learn more about C-Lab Inside, the spin-off program, and the latest five startups to be selected for it below.

Nurturing Autonomy and Innovation

Once ideas are selected as C-Lab Inside projects, employees are given up to one full year away from their day-to-day roles at Samsung to focus on implementing their ideas, as well as a research fund, dedicated spaces and the autonomy to create their own work environment. If the outcomes of the projects are transferred to an in-house division for further development, the members receive a special incentive as a reward.

Since 2015, Samsung has been supporting C-Lab Inside projects with the potential not just to transfer into an in-house division, but also with greater market potential as a C-Lab spin-off in order to help activate the Korean startup ecosystem. Samsung supports these spin-off companies with seed money investment, a 3-month mentoring program about finance, law, investment and more, and business consulting for company building and setting business plans.

The founders of a startup selected for the C-Lab Inside spin-off program are given severance pay as well as a business foundation fund. In addition, they get the opportunity to return to Samsung Electronics within five years after spin-off. “We are happy to support these employees with entrepreneurial mindsets as they open a new chapter of their lives,” said Yoon-ho Choi, President & Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Samsung Electronics. “We look forward to seeing these new startups becoming truly innovative startups that bring changes to everyone’s daily lives.”

Simplifying Diagnoses: Diavision

Founded by biotechnology and software experts from Samsung Electronics’ Health & Medical Equipment Business division, the Diavison startup developed a COVID-19 quick diagnosis kit reading solution that harnesses a smartphone camera and image analysis technology.

Diavision’s idea was initially proposed at Samsung’s Grand Discussion to Overcome COVID-19, hosted by Choi, on Samsung’s company-wide intelligence platform MOSAIC last April when the pandemic was rapidly emerging as a global issue. While 1,620 ideas were proposed by Samsung employees harnessing their own as well as the company’s technical skills and capabilities, Diavision was selected as an excellent idea, and subsequently selected as a C-Lab Inside project.

Diavision’s strategy focused on the issue that, thanks to the rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide, there was a significant increase in demand for accurate and rapid diagnostic kits. The COVID-19 rapid diagnosis kit has the advantage of being easily used by anyone, but as the infection is visually determined, concerns surrounding misjudgment can arise if the results are blurred. Therefore, the U.S. FDA recommends distributing inspection equipment together for accurate determination, but it is difficult to access this at home, small hospitals, clinics or pharmacies due to its price and more complicated operation methods.

Diavision solved this problem using smartphones and image analysis technology. When the results of the diagnostic kit are photographed with a smartphone camera, the number of viruses is quantified through image analysis using self-developed digital signal processing technology – meaning that results can be determined even when it is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. In clinical trials at domestic medical institutions, it was verified that the accuracy of Diavision’s solution was much higher than that of discriminating solely with the eyes.

Diavision’s solution works not only for COVID-19 diagnosis, but also for neutralizing antibody diagnosis kits that check antibody production after vaccination. As a result, Diavision has been receiving requests for cooperation from the bio-industry, including diagnostic kit manufacturers, even before the spin-off announcement. What’s more, Diavision’s solution has the potential to be expanded to a wide range of tests that use rapid diagnostic kits, including the flu and metabolic diseases.

Easier Customer Interactions: Cheeseade

Following the rise of smaller, unmanned stores during the COVID-19 pandemic to help promote social distancing measures, startup Cheeseade has developed a solution that harnesses visible light communication (LiFi) to reduce the burden on these smaller stores.

The solution consists of a visible light transmission device and a smartphone app for reception that can be simply attached to existing kiosks or lighting. It allows customers to check product information and make their order using this LiFi device simply by turning on the smartphone app at the store. Store operators will be able to manage customer data by simply installing this inexpensive and simple solution, allowing them to continue operating as smart unmanned stores.

An Intelligent Dance Gamer: Goose Lab

Goose Lab, a startup founded by Samsung mobile phone UX designers and AI experts with 14 years of dance experience, has developed an AI dance game platform that is based on motion recognition technology.

While in the C-Lab Inside program, the Goose Lab founders, dance enthusiasts themselves, were following the growing trends online that saw users create dance videos online. But while observing the explosion of dance videos onto YouTube, TikTok and Instagram during the pandemic, they noticed that there were many users who were not able to correct their movements, as they were not able to receive explanation or feedback when dancing alone at home.

Goose Lab’s dance game platform utilizes AI vision technology to recognize, analyze, and provide feedback on users’ dance movements using only mobile devices or laptop cameras and without requiring any separate device such as a console. The startup plans to use this technology to create a dance game platform that allows people around the world to engage in avatar dance battles, and also aims to create a metaverse platform where dance lovers can gather to create and share games in the future.

Making Homebrewing Easy: Booze & Buzz

Booze & Buzz is a startup run by a Samsung mobile device development expert and a mobile UX designer who have lived in Italy for 10 years and won multiple international homebrewing competitions. Their solution shortens the brewing period of homebrewing from around three weeks to less than seven days, reduces the size of the product to be more comfortable for the home and comes with ingredient kits so that anyone can easily make the alcohol of their choice at home.

Through the solution’s app, users can monitor and control the production process of their home-brewed drinks, and are able to make a variety of drinks including beer, makgeolli (Korean rice wine), sparkling wine and even mead (honey wine).

In the future, the startup plans to provide personalized services that allow users to order their own alcohol kit by selecting the ingredients they want, and is set on leading the homebrewing culture in line with the growing trend of home-based lifestyles following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sensor-Powered Orthotics: Logos Bioelectronics

Logos Bioelectronics has developed a personalized foot brace – a functional insole – production solution for the 10 to 20% of the population who have difficulty walking due to changes in their foot shape.

The global foot orthotics market is expected to grow by more than 6% every year, and is currently worth about 2.9 billion USD. Usually, it takes a lot of time and money to manufacture foot orthosis, not to mention customer hospital bills, but Logos Bioelectronics has solved this issue with their innovative engine that collects data through sensors and extracts personalized foot orthotics.

When users put the sensor insole developed by Logos Bioelectronics into their shoes, the AI algorithm is able to diagnose the user’s walking posture and foot shape as they walk. The customized foot orthotics can be easily ordered online at a lower price than products currently available on the market.

Investing in Startup Longevity

Samsung Electronics has invested a total of 25 million USD over the past six years to support 57 C-Lab Inside spin-off startups, thus creating over 470 jobs. These startups have subsequently raised a total of over 84 million USD in follow-up investments, and their overall corporate value has surpassed 430 million USD.

The average survival rate of Korean startups after three years is 41.5%, and the average survival rate after five years falls to 29.2% – but the survival rate of C Lab spin-off startups is 98% after three years and 65% after five years, well above the national average.

Not only does the C-Lab inside startup spin-off program result in innovative solutions designed to help improve people’s lives, but it also results in the enhancement of Korean startups’ global reputation. At CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition, the program’s solutions won 14 innovation awards.

Particularly of note is EVAR, an electric vehicle charging solution company that spun off in 2018 and recently received a 4.6 million USD investment from Samsung Venture Investment and a major domestic automaker. EVAR is preparing to launch a subscription charging business in the future, and is currently expanding its scope to a wireless car charging service.

Furthermore, Lululab, an AI skin analysis service company that spun off in 2017, has entered more than 100 overseas offline stores in 11 countries through B2B partnerships, contributing to the K-beauty wave in the global beauty market. The company, which currently has more than 700,000 skin data points, aims to be listed on the KOSDAQ in 2023.

Stay tuned to Samsung Newsroom for more news and information on C-Lab Inside and its startup spin-off program.